He was one of the founders of the “new journalism” back when conversational, colorful and overly-punctuated prose was first en vogue, but writer Tom Wolfe doesn’t have much of an appreciation for today’s new journalism, mainly those pesky rumor mills called blogs. “I think most of that is like knitting,” Wolfe told Yeas & Nays. “It’s a way to pass the time, but with knitting at least you produce the pair of socks or the scarf.”
Wolfe stopped by the Newseum Wednesday night to hear, for the first time, excerpts from the play “Wolfe: The Electric Kool-Aid Ice-Cream-Suited Right Stuff Man-in Full-On-the-Beat,” written by playwright Judith Auberjonois and performed by her husband, René Auberjonois.
Auberjonois admitted to having jitters since Wolfe (wearing that classic white suit) was sitting front row. “You must understand that this is the first time Tom has heard any of it and try to have some concept of how nervous I am,” he said.
After the performance, Wolfe gave advice on writing both nonfiction and fiction.”I think reporting is just everything,” Wolfe explained, before showing off his pop culture know-how by recommending a few fiction-based-on-fact book ideas. “A good example is Paris Hilton,” he said. “I think a novelist could have written a story about an heiress whose name is in bold print in all the columns and she gets caught making a pornographic movie, herself involved…that’s not a bad book,” he said.
And was this a reference to Kim Kardashian? “Or it could have been a novel about a girl with absolutely no acting or singing talent who gets a $10 million contract for a reality show. And at that time nobody would have thought of the fact that the pornographic movie is a step to stardom,” he said. “You just have to leave the building.”
